KARACHI: New clothing line Black&White is the brainchild of Nabeela Fatima, a 28-year-old Lums graduate. Her passion for fashion resulted into three diversified collections at her store; Kurtaan, offering only kurtas; Chic, offering semi-formal wear, and Dusk, which is a complete formal line.
Fatima feels that apart from an education in fashion and textile design, a designer must have good aesthetic sense. “I have a team of designers who manage my brand,” she said. “Two are from the Asian Institute of Fashion Design and one is from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. So yes, a degree is a must, but one must also have a designing sense.”
On Wednesday evening, at Dolmen Mall Tariq Road, Black&White opened its doors with a small fashion presentation. At the event, Fatima talked about her affinity with fashion. “For me, fashion is creativity, it is in-built. It’s not just about business, for me it is all about passion.”
With a small fountain in the centre of the store and dark wooden flooring, the vibe of Black&White was pleasant and soothing. While her collection has a wide-ranging colour palette, Fatima explained her love for black and white. “The great philosophy of colours relies on these two colours,” she said. “I believe many colours begin from black and white. Pairing them together is just heavenly.”
She has priced her three lines differently, with Kurtaan at Rs3,000 to Rs5,800; Chic at Rs6,000 to Rs12,000 and Dusk at Rs14,000 to Rs22,000.
“We are catering to a different set of people,” she said. “If we are offering Eastern embroidery on the clothes, we also have Western cuts on the same shirt. It’s highly experimental, but I hope people will like it.”
The young entrepreneur hopes to expand to Dolmen City Mall, Clifton and Zamzama in the next six months and then move towards Islamabad and Lahore.
At the event, fashion designer Tayyab Bombal made an interesting observation: “Many stores have lost their appeal, intrinsically because of the fact that the new designers are copy-cats per se, and shamelessly copy the designs of other giants present in the market. It is very sad indeed.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2013.
Like Life & Style on Facebook for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.